The present Invention relates to a new and distinct Ilex plant, botanically known as Ilex×hybrida and hereinafter referred to by the name ‘EN2’.
The new Ilex plant is a product of a planned breeding program conducted by the Inventor in Poplarville, Miss. The objective of the breeding program was to develop new large, dense and uniform Ilex plants with mounding or pyramidal plant form and dark green-colored leaves.
The new Ilex plant originated from a cross-pollination during the spring of 2003 of an unidentified proprietary selection of Ilex×hybrida, not patented, as the female, or seed, parent with Ilex×hybrida ‘Conaf’, disclosed in U.S. Plant Pat. No. 9,487, as the male, or pollen, parent. The new Ilex plant was discovered and selected by the Inventor in 2005 as a single plant within the progeny of the stated cross-pollination in a controlled environment in Poplarville, Miss.
Asexual reproduction of the new Ilex plant by softwood cuttings in Poplarville, Miss. since 2006 has shown that the unique features of the new Ilex plant are stable and reproduced true to type in successive generations of asexual reproduction.